Shopper's World was the
first outdoor shopping center built east of the Mississippi
River, which opened on October 4, 1951 with 44 retailers.
The
center was initially anchored by a futuristic, flying saucer-like Jordan Marsh with two two-story sides
containing running parallel to create a courtyard in the middle of the
open-air center. The center courtyard was very popular, even hosting
Flipper the Dolphin once during the summer. A children's playmround was
also located in this area. At the northwest corner of the mall parcel,
the first cinema ever to be located at a shopping mall was built, and
was connected to the rest of the mall by means of a walkway.. The north
end of the mall was left open until around 1960, when a Stop and Shop
grocery store was constructed there. Also at the north end of the mall
was a Jordan Marsh basement
store, which competed directly with the Filene's Basement located
across Route 30. As time went on, it evolved into a Jordan Marsh furniture store. In 1978, the
Stop and Shop was replaced with a Toys 'R' Us, which featured an
exterior of brown and colored bars. Along the west wing of the center
was at one time a two-floored Sears. By the mid-1960s, Sears had
relocated to the Natick Mall, and the store became Lerner's. Next to
Sears was a deli, and then McCrory, which was also a two-floored
tenant. Across from these two stores was Herman's World of Sporting
Goods, located along the mall's east side. The store was somewhat of a
smaller predecessor to today's Dick's Sporting Goods and The Sports
Authority. Shopper's World also had a Gulf gas station outlot, which
was located on the east side of the mall before it was demolished in
1975. There was also a General Tire outlot, which was located on the
west side of the mall. By the early 1990's, the mall had become home to
such retailers as Radio Shack, Hammett's Learning Center, Windsor
Button of Boston, Joan and Ed's Deli (which has since relocated to Sherwood
Plaza), Papa Gino's, Brett's Luggage, and many others. Shopper's
World was located next to the Natick Mall, an enclosed mall that was
built in 1966 and never had a huge impact on Shopper's World. It housed
the relocated Sears as well as a Filene's.

As previously mentioned,
Shopper's World had the first cinema ever constructed at a shopping
mall, a General Cinema. The cinema opened along with the rest of the
mall in 1951 with one screen. General Cinema designed the cinema with
adobe-like panels as exterior walls, which were bolted onto steel
girders. The logic behind this unique construction was that if the
cinema were to be a complete failure, General Cinema could easily pack
up the cinema and leave. The original auditorium had 1432 seats,
and was actually designed with curtains, a stage, and a dressing area
with two bathrooms backstage. For the first two years of operation,
General Cinema ran "summer stock" during the summer months, which
consisted of Broadway musicals and comedies starring some of the
biggest names of the day, such as Mae West, Marlon Brando, and Wally
Cox. The original building had turquoise walls along with a floral
carpet. In 1963, the cinema added a second screen, and remodeled the
interior to a white lobby with blue fabrics on the wall along with red
carpeting. In 1974 the cinema added two more screens, along with two
box offices, a refreshments stand, and a darker wood-paneled section of
the lobby. Finally, in 1982, the largest two auditoriums were both
split in half, thus creating a total of six screens. For the most part,
the cinema would remain in its 1982-state until it was replaced with
the General Cinema Framingham 14 in 1995.

While the facility would
not see any real form of renovation until the early 1990s, planning
began many years earlier. At first, Allied Stores, Inc., owner of Jordan
Marsh and Shopper's World, was going to rehabilitate the facility. In
1982, Allied signed Melvin Simon of SimonMalls
to construct a new, modern, enclosed mall. By 1986, plans were made
evident that Simon's new Shopper's World would increase from 710,000
sq. ft. to 1.3 million sq. ft., adding a 400-room hotel, several office
buildings, and significantly more retail space. However, when Canadian
businessman Robert Campeau acquired Allied Stores through his Campeau
Corp. in 1987, he decided to rebuild the mall himself and exclude
Simon. Following this announcement, Simon proceeded to sue Campeau on
the basis that he had already spent $3.5 million dollars on the
project. Meanwhile, Equitable Life Assurance Companies, which owned the
land that Shopper's World was located on, sued Campeau along with
Simon, so Campeau countersued Simon and Equitable. Finally, on
September 21, 1989, all lawsuits were dropped and the trio agreed to
work together on a new Shopper's World, with Campeau in charge. The new
plan agreed to included a three-floored Nordstrom, a 300,000 sq. ft.
three-floored Jordan
Marsh, two other large department stores, a 45,000 sq. ft. retail
outlot, a 50,000 sq. ft. movie theater outlot, a 420,000 sq. ft.,
two-floored mall corridor, and eventually 4 four-floored, 100,000 sq.
ft. office buildings. This proposed facility would also include
construction of a new interchange on Route 9, and direct access to the
Massachusetts Turnpike with the possibility of eventually getting an
exit for the center itself. By 1990, the plan evolved to five
department stores. Two large parking garages would flank the left and
right sides of the facility, and the construction would allow for the
existing facility to continue operation until all existing tenants were
relocated to their new spaces. However, the plan stalled: the
Framingham Planning Board was slow to approve the project, and
opposition from Natick Mall owner S.R. Weiner didn't help. In 1992, the
property changed hands from Melvin Simon to Chicago, IL-based Homart
Development. Homart would also acquire the Natick Mall, and in 1994,
the renovated Natick Mall opened to the public, with 172 stores, a food
court, a renovated Filene's and a new Sears, a new Lord and Taylor, and
a new three-floored Jordan Marsh: the store that
was expected to flagship Shopper's World renovation plans. The Jordan
Marsh store at Shopper's World closed shortly after.

With the new Natick Mall
open and many of Shopper's World's tenants relocated to the new
facility, In 1992, Homart quickly filed for and received approval to
construct a new power center on the site of Shopper's World.
Construction would include 25 new retailers, mostly big-box stores but
with several smaller restaurant and retail tenants sprinkled in, along
with a new General Cinema multiplex. The new cinema was one of the
first elements of the new Shopper's World to open. It was constructed
on FlutiePass
between the two retail facilities, and opened in December 1994 with 14
screens. Several years after opening, the cinema expanded to add one
new screen and one premium screen. In 2001, AMC Theaters acquired the
Chestnut Hill, MA-based General Cinema, and the name of the theater
became the AMC Framingham 15, viewing the premium cinema as a different
theater.

Construction also began
on a new Toys 'R' Us and accompanying Kids 'R' Us, on Shopper's World's
former parking lot. From the Papa Gino's, the new two new stores could
be seen. With their opening in 1994, the crumbling Shopper's World was
shuttered for good and demolished shortly after. During the demolition,
two police officers scoured the vacated property for leftover items
which were then given away to the less fortunate, also taking with them
extra office furniture that was put into use in the police station.

The big box center began
with the east side with Toys 'R' Us and Kids 'R' Us as the two first
stores that opened. Kids 'R' Us stayed with the center through a
re-branding as KRU, but closed with the rest of the chain in early
2004. Office Depot bought many of the Kids 'R' Us leases, and opened a
store in Kids 'R' Us' space in 2004. Three small stores, a Cambridge
Sound Works, a Snip-It's kids hair salon and Bruegger's Bagels opened
perpendicular to the Kids 'R' Us; Cambridge Sound Works closed
presumably when its 10-year lease expired, and Independent Mobile
opened in the space in early 2006. Independent Mobile didn't last long,
a year later the store was vacant again, but Chipotle Mexican Grill
would open in the space in September 2008. On the other side of Toys
'R' Us, an
access road to FlutiePass
was constructed, following that, more big boxes were built. While Jordan Marsh relocated to the Natick Mall, it
left the furniture department at Shopper's World with a new Jordan Marsh Furniture Gallery retail store.
The name on the store changed to Macy's Furniture Gallery when Jordan Marsh was re-branded in 1996. Next to
Macy's Furniture Gallery was T.J. Maxx, Sears HomeLife and Jewelry
Depot, a jewelry store. Sears sold a majority stake in Sears HomeLife
in 1998, and the chain was re-branded as HomeLife. The branding did
nothing to improve the chain's finances, and it was abruptly shuttered
in July 2001. In October 2002, Babies 'R' Us opened in the HomeLife
space. Jewelry Depot closed not long after construction of the
new center was completed, and the first Berkshire Grill opened in
its place on January 19, 1999. The Berkshire Grill was co-owned with
the Ground Round, and
replaced the latter's location on the corner of Route 30 and Speen Street.
In October 2003, the Berkshire Grill closed and was replaced almost
immediately by Joe's American Bar & Grill. On the road that runs
behind all of the aforementioned stores, a Massport bus terminal was
built to serve Logan Express operations as well as Peter Pan and
Greyhound busses.

The other side of the
mall is designed somewhat like an L. Construction began from the north
and included DSW Shoe Warehouse, A.C. Moore Arts and Crafts, John
Harvard's Brew House, and Marshalls, which had relocated from the
Marshalls Mall. This was followed by Bob's Stores and then Corning at
Home.

Corning at Home was
located in one of the smallest spaces at Shopper's World, measuring
10,775 sq. ft. The store sold cooking supplies until it closed and was
replaced around 1999 with Gateway Country, which sold exclusively
Gateway computers and peripherals. The chain slowly downsized until
April 2004, when all remaining Gateway Country stores including Framingham
closed abruptly. After that, the store saw a variety of seasonal
vendors such as Halloween Express until mid-2005, when The Paper Store
set up shop in to the space.

After The Paper Store
came Linens N' Things, The Sports Authority and OfficeMax. The Linens
N' Things location survived a round of store closings in May 2008, but
the company did not survive, and the store was shuttered on December
26, 2008. On June 11, 2009, Nordstrom announced that a new Nordstrom
Rack store would be opening in that space in spring 2010. OfficeMax
relocated to Shopper's World from Sherwood Plaza East when the new
center opened, and closed quietly in late 2005. It's unclear whether
the closing had to do with the company's financial issues, but it is
most likely that the store closed with the expiration of a 10-year
lease on the space. In March 2006, it was announced that a PetSmart,
complete with PetsHotel kennel facility, will open in the space in
November 2006.

Adjacent to the
OfficeMax was Nobody Beats The Wiz. Nobody Beats the Wiz an electronics
store chain very similar to Best Buy, and was based in New York City.
It was a rather dark store inside, with neon lights everywhere and a
FugiFilm blimp over the film area. They store also had a snack bar in
the middle near the music section of the store. I think they sold Rice
Krispies Treats and that was about it. However, a lawsuit came up about
the stores in which CircuitCity claimed that Nobody Beats the Wiz was
found doing fraudulent advertising, which resulted in the entire chain
abruptly closing it's Boston area
stores including a Danvers
location in 1997. Following closure of it's Boston
stores, the company sold the chain to once-local cable company
Cablevision, which wanted to use the chain not only to sell electronics
but also to support other company ventures, so that you could buy
tickets to a show at the MadisonSquareGarden, and pay your cable bill
as well. Cablevision re-imaged its New York City area stores as "The
Wiz", before downsizing and closing the entire operation in early 2003.
Meanwhile, Best Buy saw it to be a good time to enter the Boston market,
with the closure of local Wiz stores along with the recent closure of
Lechmere. The Framingham Wiz was refurbished and opened with Best Buy's
first 5 Boston
area stores in 1998.

The next store down sold
glassware and was known as Mikasa. The store was originally supposed to
become men's clothing store Today's Man, but the chain's financial
problems kept it from opening. In 2003, Mikasa decided to close the
Shopper's World store because the space was too big, at 18,000 sq. ft.,
for the amount of merchandise that they sold. Without a location in
MetroWest, Old Navy opened in the space soon after Mikasa closed in
late-summer 2003. The final store in the L is Barnes & Noble, an
original tenant at the power center. It's connected to an adjacent
Starbucks Coffee, although both tenants have exterior entrances.
Finally, the plaza has two outlots in front of where the Jordan Marsh dome was once located: TGI
Friday's, and the Olive Garden. The Olive Garden received a facelift in
2002, with TGI Friday's following suit in late 2005. While the outlots
follow with the plain brick styles of the rest of the shopping center,
they do contain elements of the corporate styling of their chains. The
center also considers Kohl's to be one of it's tenants, but more
information can be found on that at From
Bradlees to Kohl's. A police substation was added in a house-like
building near the Massport bus station in 1997; as a result of the lack
of crime, it closed by 2002 and was replaced with offices for Shopper's
World management.

Finally, after 2 years
of building, the long planned Shopper's World was complete, for the
most part. Homart had promised the construction of a $1.2 million
"public amenity" that would include a 1,000 seat performance area, a
children's playground, a mini-golf course, and a family restaurant on
land at Shopper's World to replace the pedestrian courtyard at the old
facility. However, before the facility could be constructed, Homart
sold all of its properties to new owners, with Shopper's World ending
up in the hands of Moreland Hills, OH-based Developers Diversified
Realty Corporation (DDRC), which denied any involvement in the deal
between Homart and the Town of Framingham.
Although the land that this was to be placed on was used to create the
Massport bus terminal, the town fought a legal battle over the facility
into the new millennium. Eventually, DDCR was cleared of any
responsibility to construct the new facility.

Since that time, there
have been many store changes, but all of the buildings remain almost
exactly how they were constructed in 1995. While the new Shopper's
World was nowhere near as impressive as the one that was originally
proposed, the power center serves as an important anchor to the Golden
Triangle just as the old Shopper's World serves as the catalyst for the
Golden Mile in 1951.

Aerial Photo: circa 1995

In this picture, the L of the mall is not even
visable yet. The strip of store on the right is the Toys 'R' Us, Kids
'R' Us, and Macy's Furniture Gallery, while on the right the future
Best Buy and OfficeMax are not even visable yet, same with the DSW and
A.C. Moore in the top of the photo. This must have been taken soon
after the demolition, as the shape of the old center is still fairly
visable. Cut off on the right side of the photo is the AMC cinema
complex, General Cinema at the time. The roadwork of the complex is
starting to take shape in the photo as well, although there are very
few cars driving down Ring Road, which surrounds the center. The
Bradlees on the far left is left untouched by the construction, and
it would remain this way until it was replaced by Kohl's in 2002.

My Pictures: Taken June 18, 2006

John
Harvard's received this new lettering on the building in March 2005. My Pictures: Taken December 17, 2004

Office
Depot, in it's new location in the former Kids 'R' Us space.

The
old, original facade of TGI Friday's prior to the 2005 renovation.My
Pictures: Taken May 8, 2004

Here's
what makes up the new Shopper's World. Starting on the west "strip" of
retail on the left side of the photo at the cupola are Starbucks
Coffee, Barnes & Noble, Old Navy, and Best Buy.

Continuing
from the left is The Sports Authority, Linens N' Things, the shuttered
Gateway Country, Bob's Stores, John Harvard's Brew House, Marshalls,
and A.C. Moore Arts & Crafts. DSW Shoe Warehouse is out of the
picture to the right.

Running
down the east side of the center are Joe's American Bar & Grill,
Babies 'R' Us, T.J. Maxx, and Macy's Furniture Gallery.

Continuing
down the east side are Toys 'R' Us,
vacant Kids 'R' Us and Cambridge SoundWorks. Perpendicular to
SoundWorks
are Snip It's and Bruegger's Bagels.